


The unanticipated attraction

by Avice



Series: The Constant [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Falling In Love, Love, M/M, Male Homosexuality, POV Sherlock Holmes, Romance, Romantic Friendship, Rules of attraction, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-04
Updated: 2012-06-04
Packaged: 2017-11-06 20:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/422702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avice/pseuds/Avice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock gets a new flat mate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The unanticipated attraction

The feeling doesn't come as a complete surprise. He has felt attraction before. First there was the roommate of his at school, a lanky boy, not unlike him really, with whom their eyes locked more often and longer than with others. Already then he had known what to expect – and had been expecting it. Despite what others might think, he had always categorized himself as human and knew that with the growth of body hair, there would in all likelihood also follow the sexual awakening. Besides the school curriculum with its lovely focus on venereal disease and pregnancy he had studied the physics (or really chemistry) of human attraction also on his own and observed his peers and elders in their fumbling attempts to have sex and even to find love. It came as no surprise to him that here was a rule to which he was not an exception. 

But whatever the biological imperative, Sherlock had early on decided it most certainly was not for him – a terrible waste of resources, both mental and physical, on something so haphazard as human relationships. All that expectation, build up, dreaming and planning only to end up in disappointments to be recovered from sooner or later. People always disappointed and lovers seemed to do it even more spectacularly. No, he had more important things to do than waste his energies in pursuing someone. Or trying to hold on to them after a success. Not to mention all those feelings clouding rational thought. So the long looks were all he gave and soon forgot even about them. He had other things to occupy his mind with and felt no sacrifice in not engaging in the idiotic pursuit of a mate. 

There were other brief encounters – tempting looks, enchanting scents, exceptional physique that on occasion, albeit rarely, reminded Sherlock of his carnal side. But he always shrugged them off immediately as there was always something more interesting at hand: a case, an experiment, an intellectual puzzle that occupied his mind. Sherlock knew enough to know that whatever physical reactions the hormones in his body caused, their effects would evaporate soon enough and there was never a face that haunted him or urged him to act.

And now this – an army veteran, an unhappy doctor with a psychosomatic limp, who Stamford has found to share a flat with him. All of it easy to read in his appearance as he enters the lab where Sherlock is working. His slightly rugged face and stout military posture are worth a second look, although all information needed for deductions was collected in the first glance. John is not like the others. Sherlock has been interested enough in attraction to deduce his type. It continues to resemble himself: tall, slim, dark, sex irrelevant, must have intelligent eyes. It is refreshing that John doesn’t fit the pattern, a curious fact that Sherlock just might waste five minutes thinking about when he’s bored. 

It might even be agreeable to live with someone not completely insignificant. And in any case it will be temporary as Sherlock tends to wear flat mates out in a couple of months. He has his work and his experiments and it seems flat mates are expecting he occupy his mind with dishes, buying milk, quiet after 11 p.m. or some other nonsense. Yes, this Dr. John Watson will do. 

But as Sherlock hurries out of the lab, he can't get the doctor out of his mind with the ease he should. There is something in John that stays with him and can't be shaken off with the ease he is used to. In fact Sherlock is forced to admit to himself that he is rather looking forward to their housing arrangement. 

\--

Their life falls into a comfortable pattern. John doesn't disturb his work, not much anyway and there is not much pestering Sherlock about groceries or the cleanliness of the kitchen table. Best of all John turns out to be a good listener and although his few interjections are mostly fantastically incorrect, they seem to open locks or show paths in Sherlock's mind. He finds that he can talk to John in an unprecedented way – regardless of whether John is actually present in the discussion or not. Sherlock is content. 

There is only the feeling that sometimes distracts Sherlock. The attraction he isn't able to completely forget. It is always in the background, like a trickle of sun shifting through the leaves and sometimes, as in a revelation, burning brightly. So brightly that Sherlock finds himself staring at John, the curve of his lips, those strong hands and the warm eyes that seem to look at Sherlock with acceptance he has never seen before. Sherlock wants the eyes on him, admiring him, he wills an accidental brush of those hands against his and he wants the lips in a smile, a laugh, he wants to make them laugh. When John then turns to him quizzically, raises his eyebrows and smiles a question of 'what is it?', the sun shines blindingly to his face and he has to close his eyes to protect them.


End file.
